A/N: Here's chapter 5…this one's my favorite so far so I hope you guys like it as much as me! Chapter 6 might take a few days but I'll try to have it up a.s.a.p. Please keep R/R'ing!
Chapter 6: Sweet Emotion
When we apparated home, I had to hold on to Harry because I was too drunk to do it on my own. Luna and Ron both made sure that we made it back okay before leaving for their flats. Harry carried me all the way from the car and into our kitchen, where he sat me down on one of the chairs then leaving to make a pot of coffee.
A few minutes later he sat down across from me with two cups of coffee, handing one over to me. I gratefully took it from him, and took a sip, but I almost ended up spitting it out.
"It's black!" I said in disgust.
"Yeah, well it works better when it's stronger, so you best drink up," he said in his defense. I reluctantly took another sip, it was disgusting but it was helping.
"So," he said, looking straight into my eyes, "what was tonight all about?"
"I just wanted to go out, you know, have a bit of fun," there was no way I could tell him my intentions, although I guess it did work; I had managed to make him angry enough.
"And did you have fun?" He spat. "I hope you realize, what could've happened if I decided not to go to the club with Ron. What would you have done?"
"I don't need you always looking after me Harry! I'm twenty years old not five! I got myself into it, and I could have gotten myself out, if you hadn't have showed up. I need to learn things for myself; I don't need you following me every step of the way."
There was a long pause, where I sat staring into my coffee mug, taking the occasional sip.
"I'm sorry," I heard him say, "For being so overprotective all the time, I know you hate it. I just - don't want you to get hurt." My stomach did a somersault at his words. They were nothing special, Ron, Luna, Ginny and my parents said that to me all the time, but coming from him…
"It's alright…well, I should probably head to bed, I'm going to have a major hangover in the morning."
"Oh, okay, I'll walk you upstairs then," he said, standing up.
"I'm okay you know, I'm not going to collapse on the stairs or anything," I said laughing.
"Yeah, I know but, I want to," he said sincerely.
"Okay." We walked silently up to my room, and when we arrived at my door, it felt quite awkward. Harry's hands were shoved in his pockets, looking around, obviously unsure of what to do.
"So…" he said clearing his throat, "Well. Uh - goodnight Hermione." And with that, he pulled me into a tight hug. After he finally pulled away, I leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek, although it was quite close to his lips, I'd let him think that it was only because I wasn't tall enough.
"Thanks Harry," I said, and I walked in my bedroom, and closed the door behind me.
*~*~*~*~*
The next morning I awoke to a feeling like someone was beating me with a sledgehammer all over my body. Sunlight was pouring through my window, so I rolled over and covered my face with my pillow. Finally realizing that sleep would not over come me any longer, I got up and went downstairs trudging into the kitchen. Once again, Harry was sitting at the table, drinking his coffee.
"Wow," he said looking at me and grinning, "you look like Hell."
"Aren't you sweet," I said rolling my eyes. I walked over to the counter and poured myself a cup of coffee and then returned to the table, where I sat down next to Harry.
I sat in silence, looking out the window and drinking my coffee. From the corner of my eye I could see Harry looking at me, and without thinking I turned around to face him.
"What are you looking at?" I asked him.
"I um - I was wondering…since when do you dress so…" he stammered.
"So what?" I said, raising my eyebrows and looking at him expectantly.
"Well, you know…you always dress…not like you did last night."
"Oh, and that's a bad thing?" I asked once more.
"No! No, it's just you looked, different…a good different…well not that you don't always look good…" I was doing my best trying not to laugh, but I was enjoying every minute of it.
"Um…I'm going to go take a shower. Do you want to hang out today? It's Saturday, we usually always do." He said finally.
"Sure. Any ideas on where we can go?" I asked brightly.
"How about we grab some lunch and hang out at the mall, and tonight we can watch a few movies. That is, if you don't have any other plans…" He added the last part despite himself.
"Nope, I'm free all day. I guess I should go get ready now then, I'll meet you back down here in an hour." I said and went up stairs. If I was spending the day with Harry, I needed to look good.
As soon as I got in my room I hurried into my bathroom and took a quick shower. When I got out, I charmed my hair dry and curled it with the spell Luna taught me. I took nearly everything out of my closet to try and find something decent to wear. After twenty minutes of searching, I found a pink skirt in the back of my closet, similar to the one that I had bought with Luna and a black tank top. I left the boots in the closet though; I didn't want to scare Harry away. I quickly put on some makeup: eyeliner, mascara, and lip-gloss: the works. While putting on my shoes, I glanced at the clock on my bedside table only to notice that I was almost fifteen minutes late, so I ran out my bedroom door and down the stairs.
I found Harry sitting in the living room on the sofa. He was wearing a black long sleeve button-down shirt and jeans. I am so not going to survive today, I thought to myself. He looked gorgeous (as always). Hearing me enter the room, he stood up and lifted his eyes to me. When he saw me, his eyebrows shot up and his jaw hit the floor.
"Wow," he said in awe.
"Is there…something…wrong?" I asked him, although I knew perfectly well what he was thinking, I wanted to hear him say it out loud.
"No, nothing. You just - you look…"
"Oh God, I look ridiculous don't I?" I had to admit, I was a good liar when I wanted to be.
"No! You look amazing, Mione!" He gave me one of those heart-stopping smiles and walked towards me.
"Shall we get going then?" He asked me.
"We shall," I said, looping my arm through his.
*~*~*~*~*
The walk to the café was uneventful, aside from Harry holding my hand, much like he did the night before. What's that all about, I wondered. Maybe his feelings for me were more than platonic.
When we got to the café, we took our usual seats near the back. We chatted idly while waiting for a waitress to come tack our orders. Finally, after ten minutes of waiting, one arrived.
"Harry! Hey, how's it going?," the girl said.
"Hey, April, you work here?"
"Yeah, you know, gotta pay for school. So is this your girlfriend?" April asked, finally acknowledging me.
"Oh, no, Hermione's my best friend. Em, this is April, April, meet Hermione. Me and April went out the other night"
"Hi," I said uninterestedly. The girl only nodded her head in return. The bitch, I thought. How could Harry possibly be interested in her?
"So, what will you two be eating today?" April said after a short pause.
"I'll have a burger with fries, all dressed but no onions, and a Pepsi" Harry said looking over the menu.
"And I'll have a soup and an ice tea," I told April.
"Okay, it should be here in a bit."
"You went out with her?" I asked Harry, after she walked away.
"Yeah, is that so hard to believe?" He asked me seriously.
"She just doesn't seem your type that's all."
"Well, actually you're right, we didn't really click," he explained. I held back a smirk.
A few minutes later, our food arrived. We ate mostly in silence, although once in awhile we would say a few words to each other. When we finished our lunch we left and headed for the mall. Harry, like before, grabbed my hand when we were walking.
When we walked past a lingerie store in the mall, a light bulb lit up in my head. I pulled Harry into the store.
"Come on, there's a few things I want to look at in here," I told him.
"Uh…you don't need me in here do you? I could just wait outside…" he stammered.
"Well actually, I need a guy's opinion for this."
"Are you planning on impressing someone?" He asked me.
"Possibly," I said with a secret smile on my face.
"Oh, okay then," he said and he followed me around the store while I looked for the perfect `outfit'. I found a pink and black corset with matching panties and I dragged Harry to the dressing rooms.
"Wait here," I said pushing him into a chair in front of one of the stalls and I left. After trying in on, I looked at myself in the mirror. I ruffled my caramel locks slightly to make it look like I've just been…well…you know.
"Harry can you come in here for a second?" I called, smiling widely to myself. Damn Granger, you dress down pretty good.
"Um…are you…decent?" He asked me sounding a bit unsure of himself.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," well…I wasn't all that decent. I unlocked the door and let him in. As soon as I locked the door again, I turned around to face him. He stood there, with his mouth agape and his eyes roaming my body.
"So…what do you think?" I asked him after a minute.
"It's um - really…nice," he said, his voice was cracking.
"Good. Well thanks - you can go wait outside now. Unless you want me to take it off in front of you," I said teasingly. What has gotten into me? Harry looked as if he was about to take a step towards me but instead he quickly smiled and turned around and left the stall. I had to say, things were going pretty well. I wasn't seducing him or anything…just being a tease. I guess Luna and Ginny were starting to rub off on me. I changed back into my clothes, left the stall and put the clothes back on the rack, since they had served their purpose.
"All set I guess," I said to Harry. So we left the store, hand in hand.
*~*~*~*~*
Time passed rather quickly throughout the day and we eventually decided to head over to the video store and then back home for dinner. After nearly half an hour of debating at the video store, we finally agreed on The Ring 2.
When we got home I helped Harry with supper…well…I got to set the table anyways. While he prepared our meal, I leaned against the counter and watched him cook, reflecting on today's events. Why did he hold my hand? Why was I acting the way I did? I thought that maybe my feelings weren't unrequited, and maybe he did harbor some sort of interest in me. I had to talk to Luna first thing in the morning; she could probably help me figure things out.
We ate a few minutes later and joked around, talking about old times back at Hogwarts. When the dishes were done and the popcorn was made, we made our way to the living room.
Throughout the movie, I noticed myself getting closer and closer to Harry. At one point something unexpected happened which resulted in my jump into his lap and wrapping my arms around him. The thing that surprised more so than the movie, was that instead of pulling away, he, in return, wrapped his arms securely around my waist.
The rest of the movie went by pretty smoothly - well, as smoothly as a horror movie can go anyways. When it was over, we headed upstairs and said goodnight. I changed into my pajamas, got into bed and fell straight asleep.
Unfortunately for me, I had a very vivid nightmare of some girl with very long dark hair that concealed her face was chasing me around the house until she finally caught up with me and stabbed me repeatedly with a knife. I know it probably doesn't sound very frightening, but horror movies do strange things to me.
"Hermione," said a voice from far away.
"No…please…no more…leave me alone…" I heard myself say.
"Mione, come on wake up!" I felt someone shaking me and the voice kept getting closer to me.
"Hermione!" Suddenly, my eyes shot open and bolted upright, hitting something very hard with my head. I looked around the room, only to find Harry kneeling beside my bed, holding his head in his hand.
"Oh my God Harry, are you okay?" I asked him sympathetically.
"Yeah, I'll be alright, what about you?"
"What do you mean?" I asked again, bewildered.
"I heard you screaming in your sleep, so I came in here and you were thrashing about. I tried waking you up but it was to no avail," he explained.
"You mean until I shot up and cracked you in the head?"
"Yeah," he said with…what was that look on his face?
"Well…you know how I get when I watch horror movies…" I said turning red. Harry sat on the bed beside me and pulled me into a tight hug.
"It's alright, Mione. They're only movies." He made a move to kiss cheek, but my subconscious took over my body and I turned my head, so instead of landing on my cheek, his lips landed on mine. For about the millionth time that day, I surprised myself even more by taking complete control over the kiss. Holy Hell, he's a good kisser I thought as my tongue lapped against his. The kiss was electrifying, and it sent shockwaves throughout my body. Minutes later, Harry pulled away, and broke the kiss. He was looking at me slightly confused and as if he wanted to say something.
"Um…" he said, swallowing hard, "I should go…we can talk about this in the morning," he said unsurely. I shook my head.
"No," I said, a little more firm than I had intended. "No," I repeated this time more softly, taking his hands in mine and intertwining our fingers. "Stay with me," I said although to me it sounded more like a question.
"What about what you said last week?" He asked me.
"Forget about what happened, let's just focus on now," I said looking into his eyes.
"Fine with me," he said with a small smile.
That night was the pivotal point in our relationship. We were past the point of no return, and this time there was no turning back. In the back of my mind, I thought that things might not work out, but I was finally ready to take that chance and go for something that I had always wanted.
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